


Welcome To The Land Of The Living

by MaeveBran



Category: Captain America (2011)
Genre: Community: capkinkmeme, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-06
Updated: 2012-03-06
Packaged: 2017-11-01 13:43:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/357453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeveBran/pseuds/MaeveBran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a full day of tests, Captain Steve Rogers gets settled into a new life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome To The Land Of The Living

Captain Steven G. Rogers pressed a couple fingers to the cotton ball that covered the site where a nurse had just drawn blood. That was something that didn’t seem to change no matter what year it was. Some doctor was always ordering a nurse to get a blood sample from him. When he was younger, it was to figure out just what was wrong with him this time. Then it was because they wanted to study the effects of the Super Soldier Serum and try to recreate it. Now it was to figure out how he had survived nearly seventy years frozen in ice.

“That’s all we need, Captain” the nurse said pleasantly.

Steve nodded. He left the infirmary but stood standing in the hall, not knowing where to go. He removed the cotton ball since the wound had stopped bleeding. He tossed it in a nearby trash can while trying to decide where to go.

A female agent, the one who had greeted him in that fake recovery room walked towards him. She was dressed in modern business attire now. She looked like one of the many agents running around this building.

“Captain Rogers,” the agent greeted.

“Yes, Agent…,” Steve said.

“Carter,” she said. “Sharon Carter.”

Steve started at the name. “Any relation to Peggy Carter?”

“She’s my Aunt,” Sharon replied. “And she’d have my ass for participating in that little deception earlier.”

“Then why did you do it?” Steve asked. He looked at her and could see the resemblance to Peggy in her.

“I was ordered to,” she said. “The shrinks said it might be best to break it to you slowly so I followed orders.”

“Oh,” Steve said, not knowing what else to say.

“Anyway, I’m supposed to show you to the quarters that have been prepared for you,” Sharon said. “If you’ll follow me.”

Steve nodded and followed as she led the way to a bank of elevators. They went to the 58th floor and stepped out on to a floor of apartments. Sharon took out a key from her skirt pocket and opened the door to the western corner apartment and preceded him in. Steve looked at the view from the floor to ceiling windows of the living area. It wasn’t all that fancy of an apartment, in fact it looked like an office that had been converted to a living space but it still looked like an office. That view was one he wanted to draw.

“It is, of course temporary,” she said. “We’ll find you something more to your tastes but for now …”

“This will do,” Steve said. “It’s far grander than anywhere else I’ve ever lived.”

Sharon looked down at her feet. Of course it was, her Aunt had told her stories of Steve all her life. She knew he was just a kid from working class Brooklyn when he had been chosen for Project Rebirth. From the file she had read in preparation for the stunt with the recovery room, she knew he’d been an orphan raised by his best friend’s family, who could ill afford another mouth to feed, during his late teenage years. So of course this would scream luxury to him.

“The bedroom and it’s attached bath are through that door,” She pointed to the door on her right. “The door over there leads to the apartment next door which is empty right now. In fact, you’re the only occupant of this entire floor.”

Steve nodded as he wandered over to the kitchen area and looked around. The stove and refrigerator looked like they were just modern versions of the ones he’d grown up using. The other appliances were new. He was going to have to have someone teach him what they were for and how to use him. He usually thought he could do just about anything but this new world might be the one thing he couldn’t conquer. It wasn’t that he feared it, but that he was very much afraid he’d never fit in.

He sank, dejectedly, onto one of the bar stools. He wasn’t going to cry. It had just hit him, just how out dated he was. This was going to take a lot of work just to live in this world.

Sharon watched him. She had thought he was doing so well, but it seemed that the modern kitchen was going to do Captain America in. She walked over and stood next to him.

“You can always have take out delivered,” Sharon said. She rifled through one of the drawers and withdrew a small stack of menus.

“Restaurants deliver these days?” Steve asked as he looked at the menus.

He looked so lost, sitting there contemplating the menus in his hands, that she couldn’t help but give his shoulder a slight squeeze. He looked up at her and she felt even worse. He was just as lost but now he seemed confused by her touch. He’d been awake and tested beyond belief for the last two days. Had no one thought to offer him comfort?

“You said Peggy was your Aunt,” Steve started. “How is she?”

“She’s keeping the staff at the assisted living home, in upstate where she lives, hopping,” Sharon said with a smile. “I can arrange a visit if you want.”

“That would be nice,” Steve said with no change in the sad look in his eyes. “Do you know what happened to the others?”

“Not off the top of my head, but I can find out and let you know tomorrow,” she offered.

“I’d like that,” he answered. He looked at the menus again. “How would I pay for any of this?”

Sharon dropped her hand from his shoulder and grabbed the large manila envelope that was resting on the counter. She handed it to Steve. He opened it and took out the contents – a new wallet, some cash, a passport, driver’s license, a debit card, and a credit card. He looked at the last two items in confusion. She handed him a pen so he could sign the various places requiring his signature.

“What are these?” Steve asked as he took the pen and signed where indicated to make the documents official.

“The one labeled Debit is your bank card. It accesses the account that has been set up for you,” Sharon said.

“But I don’t have anything to put in a bank account,” Steve protested as he put the cards into the wallet.

“Oh but you do. Agent Coulson is working on getting your back pay for you, but in the meantime, the records from the SSR indicated they kept your financial records from the war and kept your account active all these years. So your pay from 1945 has about seventy years of interest on it,” Sharon explained.

“Oh,” Steve said in lieu of anything intelligent. “That was thoughtful of them considering they must have thought me dead.”

“It wasn’t so thoughtful, as it was they didn’t know what to do with it since you had no next of kin,” Sharon said.

Steve nodded. It was true then and even truer now. He had no next of kin. No one he was connected to. His parents were long dead as was Bucky. He was sure that Bucky’s parents were long gone as well. 

Sharon moved to the phone. “To get an outside line dial 9. There is a list of extensions here. Director Fury’s, Agent Coulson’s, mine, and the infirmary are all listed for your convenience. Of course 0 still calls the operator and they should be able to give you any assistance you need.”

Steve nodded. The phone looked more complicated than those he’d known but still looked like it operated on the principal of pushing the numbers he wanted. He could deal with push buttons instead of rotary dialing. 

“If there is nothing else, Captain,” Sharon said. “I’ll be going home.”

“Right,” Steve said. “Well thanks.”

Sharon walked towards the door. She looked back at him just sitting there staring at the file that had been left next to the envelope of personal items for him to read. His shoulders still slumped. For all that he was a vision of adult male perfection, he looked like a lost little boy. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for him. He had to be lonely.

“Are you going to be all right?” she asked.

“Eventually,” Steve replied truthfully.

“If you want company, I don’t have to go,” she suggested.

He looked up and gave a half smile. “That would be good,” Steve said. “I could use some more explanation of some of this stuff.” He gestured to the papers in his hands.

“Just let me go down and clock out and grab my stuff from the office,” Sharon said. “You could come with me if you want.” 

He hopped off of the bar stool and grabbed his new wallet. He put it in to the back pocket of his pants, feeling normal for the first time in the last couple days. He now had the means to go where he wanted in the city since he had money and identification. He had his own place, even if it was within the S.H.E.I.L.D. headquarters.

He followed Sharon out of the door. She handed him the key she had used earlier. “This is yours,” She said.

He locked the door as she went to press the elevator call button.

“How do I get back up here? Do I have to go through the offices?” Steve asked as he stepped beside her in the hallway.

“This elevator goes to the lobby of the building,” Sharon said. “The doors to the street are never locked since there is always someone coming and going. We operate around the clock since we have ops all over the world. Though it is a skeleton crew overnight.”

“Right,” Steve said as he got into the elevator behind her.

They went down to her office and she signed out for the day and grabbed her purse. “Was there someplace you wanted to go or …” She asked as they made their way back to the elevators.

Steve looked a little self -conscious. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” he said. “I’d like to go look at the old neighborhood. I know it’s probably changed but if I could see it then I might be able to firmly believe this is real and not another trick.”

Sharon looked at him. No wonder he was lost. Not only was everything different and he had lost everyone he’d known, but he had held out hope this was all a trick. The stunt they had pulled with the fake recovery room had probably not helped that impression. 

“Sure,” she said as she pressed the down button. “Brooklyn it is.”

An hour latter, Sharon and Steve walked down the street he’d grown up on. They had already gone by the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility where the Project Rebirth Procedure had taken place. He’d told her about the bomb and how her aunt had fired at the fleeing Hydra operative. He’d made Aunt Peggy sound like a hero when she knew that Steve had been the hero that day. Aunt Peggy had told her the story when she was growing up.

Steve stopped walking and looked at a brownstone that was in the middle of a restoration remodel.

“This used to be home,” he said. “Mom and I lived in the top floor apartment and the Barneses lived in the other floors. When Mother died, I didn’t really have to move very far. They had to rent out the apartment but I was able to stay in the same building. Bucky and I shared a room for four years until I was able to move out on my own.”

Sharon looked at the far away look on his face. Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea but neither had anything else the shrinks had suggested. She was in uncharted waters. This wasn’t exactly a common occurrence so who knew what would help.

“It really is a different time isn’t it?” Steve asked. “Even if there are no flying cars.”

“Yes,” Sharon answered. “Wait. Flying cars? Why would there be flying cars?”

“Howard Stark demonstrated them at the expo in 1943. He said they were just a few years away from being made,” Steve said. “I always figured that the future would include them.”

“Uncle Howard never actually perfected the flying car,” she said. “He gave up on it in favor of other things. I’ll have to see if I can persuade Tony to look into it if it means that much to you.”

“Uncle Howard?” he asked. “Did Peggy and he…?”

“Uh, no. I just lived with Aunt Peggy after my parents died and they were good friends. I figured if his son Tony could call my aunt, Aunt Peggy then I could call Howard, Uncle Howard. I think it amused him,” she explained. “Though my aunt did hint a couple times, that she and Howard had dated for a long while but the eventually figured that they made better friends then lovers. I do know that she did introduce Howard to his wife and was even in the wedding party.”

“That’s good,” Steve wandered on down the street. He stopped in front of a restaurant that bragged about being in business since 1935. It was a small neighborhood Italian place. The kind that became a community hub as people from the neighborhood celebrated life’s special moments there. “I can’t believe it’s still here.”

“You want to eat here” Sharon asked. “My treat.”

“That would be nice,” Steve said as he clung to the familiar place. Sure, it had been updated but it still had the framed pictures of local celebrities on the wall. 

They followed the waitress to their table. Sharon looked at the wall above Steve and giggled.

“What?” Steve asked.

She just pointed to the pictures above him. There in black and white was a picture from the New York show of the Bonds Tour all those years ago. One of him in the tights and silly winged hat lifting the motorcycle with the three ladies on it. Next to that was another picture of Steve in his Army Uniform posing with Angelo, the original owner, and smiling for the camera.

“That was the last time I was here,” Steve said. “Right after that the tour went to Italy and you’ve read the file.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Sharon asked.

“I doubt it,” he said. “I’ll just say I’m his nephew or something.”

No one recognized him, so no plan was needed. After dinner they went back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. building and Sharon walked with him back to his quarters.

“Thanks for staying with me, Agent Carter,” Steve said as he unlocked the door.

“No problem, Captain,” she replied. 

“I hope I didn’t keep you from something,” he said as he went into the apartment.

“Only laundry that could wait another day,” she said. “Will you be all right, now?”

“I think I can manage,” he said.

“Good. I’ll be by first thing in the morning and give you a tour around the building and then we’ll get on with your lessons in modern technology,” she said.

“I’m sure I can figure it out if you have other things to do,” he suggested.

“I don’t have other things to do. Until you feel up to speed, I’ve been assigned to you,” Sharon said.

“Oh,” Steve said. He’d been feeling like he could do this, get along with the modern world. But now he found out that the only person to treat him like a person was only doing so because she was ordered to.

“I asked for the assignment, Steve” Sharon said. Steve looked at her. She hadn’t used his first name all night nor had he asked her to but now she was. Maybe it meant something.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because of the stories Aunt Peggy told me growing up” Sharon answered. 

“I’m not the hero she made me out to be,” he said. “I just did what needed to be done.”

“Yes, she told me some of those stories,” she said. “But she also told me about the car ride to the procedure and what you had told her then. And that you were a man, a good man true, but still a man no different from any other despite the thrilling heroics. I didn’t think any other agent would get that so I requested the assignment.”

Sharon walked over and gave him a hug. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

She walked away toward the elevators.

“I’ll see you in the morning then,” Steve called as the elevator doors closed. She waved just before they closed completely. He walked into his apartment and sat down at the kitchen counter to read that file. He might be able to do this living in the twenty- first century thing after all.


End file.
